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Now retired and living in San Diego, Rabbi Hillel Silverman said he was shocked and stunned to learn a member of his Dallas congregation had shot and killed President John F. Kennedy's assassin almost 50 years ago.

Over the years, many believed Ruby was connected in some way to Oswald and may have been trying to silence him from talking about the assassination.

On Friday, the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, Silverman talked with NBC 7 San Diego about his memories of the man many say destroyed the chance for Americans to learn why Oswald did what he did.

Silverman visited Ruby the day after he shot Oswald and remembers asking, "Jack, why did you do it?"

Ruby answered that did it for the American people, Silverman said.

The two men visited many times while Ruby was imprisoned. Silverman would bring Ruby religious prayer books and keeps a sketch of one of those meetings.

"He was belligerent, strange, volatile, bad-tempered and thought he was doing the right thing," the rabbi recalls of Ruby.

Silverman said he asked Ruby many times if there were any conspiracy involved, but Ruby always denied it.

Front Pages After JFK's Death

“'I was angry. It was a fit of passion. I thought I was doing the American people a great deed, and I did it,’” Silverman recalls Ruby answering.